Cogsmo birthday card for my brother in law - the alphabet stamps I used to spell out Happy Birthday cost 99p! 99p!!!! They are mini wood-mounted Studio G ones and they come in several fonts. I thought they might be a bit crappy, but they're fine and the wood mount has a long ('scuse my French) "shaft", so they're not too fiddly.

They're part of a splurge I had at Crab Apple Crafts, the nearest decent papercrafts shop to where I live. I went with a friend. We had a nice ladies' day together and practically cleaned them out. We are going back to hoover up anything we missed in three weeks and to do a mini book class. It is one of those word mini books, which is cut in the shape of the letters. I must confess I've never really thought of doing one, and wouldn't know where to start, but the sample on display in the shop was gorgeous so we booked for it.

I do like Crab Apple. The owners get a lot of rather grumpy coverage in the smack blog, but whenever I've seen them they've never been anything less than nice and helpful, even when I've only been in and spent, like, 99p.

OK, I've never actually been in and spent just 99p, that was a bad example. But I'm sure that were I to go in and spend 99p they would be just as pleasant. They have actually talked me out of making two expensive purchases from them in the past, a cricut and a melt pot, saying that they were very expensive for what they did (I didn't listen to them for long, mind, and bought them elsewhere. Turns out they were right. Grrr...).

In other news, here is Hevva Bear on her "cactivity" centre made by the boys. The sign reads "Cat Center. Hether only". Bless. Well what modern puss wouldn't want her own Tardis and plastic samurai sword, eh? We let her out for the first time yesterday and she came back OK, so she has been out for most of the day today. She exchanged some rather choice words with a couple of the neighbourhood cats, one of which later climbed in to our house via an open window. A huge tabby - like a small pony really, you could easily throw a saddle on her and mosey off down the garden. And so mild! She declined to leave when asked, so I had to pick her up and she just flopped in my arms and gazed up at me. The sort of cat you could dress up in a christening gown and mop cap and wheel around in a pram. If they hadn't made laws to stop people doing that, obviously.